NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 21 November 2018 - Working on Life Support Gear

NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 21 November 2018 - Working on Life Support Gear.

Three humans will spend Thanksgiving orbiting about 260 miles above Earth. Another three individuals are spending the holiday in Kazakhstan preparing to launch to the International Space Station on Dec. 3.

The Expedition 57 trio from the U.S., Russia and Germany will share a traditional Thanksgiving meal together with fresh ingredients delivered over the weekend on a pair of new cargo ships. Commander Alexander Gerst from ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor will take the day off in space. Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev will work a normal day of Russian science and maintenance then join his crewmates for the holiday feast.

Gerst called down to European mission controllers today for a weekly tag up then answered a questionnaire about his experiences living in space. Afterward, he continued unpacking inventory from the new Cygnus cargo craft.

Auñón-Chancellor spent most of her day in Japan's Kibo lab module working on life support gear. Toward the end of the day, she stowed research samples in a science freezer then debriefed ground controllers with Gerst about Cygnus cargo operations.

Prokopyev focused his attention on the Russian side of the orbital lab working on life support gear and unloading the new Progress 71 cargo craft.

Back on Earth, three Expedition 58 crew members from the U.S., Russia and Canada are in final training ahead of their six-and-a-half month mission on the orbital lab. Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko will lead the six-hour flight aboard the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft flanked by NASA astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques.

This will be Kononenko's fourth mission to the space station and his second as station commander. McClain and Saint-Jacques are both beginning their first missions to space.

On-Orbit Status Report

Loop Heat Pipe Radiator (LHPR) removal: Following a successful completion of the LHPR experiment on GMT 320, today the crew removed it from the MPEP and stowed the hardware. The Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) was then removed from the Japanese Experiment Module Air Lock (JEMAL) slide table and troubleshooting was performed on a limit switch in the Passive Capture Mechanism. The LHPR, is an advanced two-phase heat transfer device that utilizes the evaporation and condensation of a working fluid (propylene in this case) to transfer heat, and the capillary force to circulate the fluid. This investigation demonstrates the heat transfer performance/functions under microgravity conditions using the LHPR experimental apparatus, which is grappled by the JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS). This technology can be applied in the thermal control system of future satellites that generate large amounts of heat that could negatively affect satellite operations.

Nanoracks (NR) Platform 1: The crew removed Modules -75 and -76 from Nanoracks Platform-1, took photos of modules -75, -76, and -77 all together, and then installed all three modules into Nanoracks Platform-1. NR Module 75, known as Dream-Up Überflieger 2018 Project ARISE, is an experiment by University of Duisburg-Essen team on Planet Formation Due to Charge Induced Clustering. NR Module 76 is the Dream-Up Überflieger 2018 Project Pump Application using Pulsed Electromagnets for Liquid relocation (PAPELL) experiment. NR Module 77 is the Dream-Up Überflieger 2018 Project Experimental Chondrule Formation at the ISS (EXCISS). Chondrules are small spherical objects that can be found in most of all meteorites with a texture that indicates they have crystallized from a melt.

Veg-03G plant check and watering: The Veg-03 plants were checked for dryness, watered as necessary, and imagery was taken of the overall Veggie facility and individual plants with the bellows up. The ground team reports the plants are doing well, including the plants that were initially growing more slowly than the others were. The current plan is to harvest next week. Veg-03G is currently in a ~ 28-day growth cycle, which began on 25-October for the Red Russian Kale and Dragoon Lettuce plants. The primary goal of the Veg-03 G/H/I testing is to demonstrate plant growth in the Veggie hardware using leafy green vegetables as a test crops.

At Home in Space (AHIS): The crew completed a questionnaire in their morning (to prevent answers from being impacted by fatigue). This Canadian Space Agency investigation assesses culture, values, and psychosocial adaptation of astronauts to a space environment shared by multinational crews on long-duration missions. It is hypothesized that astronauts develop a shared space culture that is an adaptive strategy for handling cultural differences and they deal with the isolated confined environment of the spacecraft by creating a home in space. At Home in Space also uses questionnaires to investigate individual and culturally related differences, family functioning, values, coping with stress, and post-experience growth.

Northrop Grumman 10 (NG-10) Cygnus Cargo Operations: The crew continued to perform early cargo unloading operations today. Ground Teams estimate ~6 hours remain for unloading critical items. Once critical items have been unloaded from Cygnus, the hatch will be closed until after the SpX-16 Dragon mission.

Ku-Band High Rate Data Testing: This evening, ground teams will configure the on-board video system to maximize Joint Space LAN (JSL) throughput in order to test increased Ku-Band return data rates. Upgrades to both the onboard systems and ground networks have been put in place to allow for Ku-Band return rates of up to 600 Mbps. This test will specifically increase the amount of source data provided from the on-board system in order to observe the system while fully utilizing the bandwidth.

NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 21 November 2018 - Working on Life Support Gear

Three humans will spend Thanksgiving orbiting about 260 miles above Earth. Another three individuals are spending the holiday in Kazakhstan preparing to launch to the International Space Station on Dec. 3.